New computer

The Vol-in-Law and I bought a new computer yesterday. I fancied a system of laptops, where we each had our own with docking stations for peripherals and so forth. But to get whizzy memory and graphics cards and other things with alphanumeric names on a laptop we would have had to sell a kidney. Still, at the going rate, we should have had some money left over for a nice vacation, so perhaps we should have done that. And I would have made the ViL sell his first.

I've been pressing to get a new PC for a while. Our old one works, but it is old now and was below spec when we bought it. Also it makes a loud noise like this ZHZH ZHZH, interspersed with an occasional HURGH or GHU-HUG. I'm no expert, but don't think that sounds so good.

The last time we had to buy a new PC was when the old one died, potentially losing all our data and we got so panicked we made a poor and expensive choice of replacement. I was determined to get a new one before we did the same again.

In the end, we went to a big PC chain and found one with great specs and a reasonable price. It had a lot more memory and bells and whistles than we hoped for and it was only 10 per cent more than our budget - but below our reservation price.

Only trouble was, it was sold out. Imagine. A PC cheaper and with more "stuff" than a slightly newer model, and it sold out. So said our salesman. I don't know where he was from, but his command of spoken English was less than we might have hoped. He also used a lot of hair product. My friend, piece of advice, making your hair stiff and sticky-up with product reveals rather than conceals your reducing hair density.

Anyway, he said that he checked the stock and no dice. Wouldn't we be interested in a more expensive model? We asked if we could order the sold out model and he said "two or three weeks" and we said - ok. (But this conversation takes a l.o.n.g. time what with his English skills and all). But then he tries to fob us off to some "business centre" colleagues who use a "different warehouse" - and we go back to the stock floor.

We figure out that the stock is kept beneath the display tables - with the specs on the box, so we'll look for another model with what we want. I start looking under the tables with a promotional banner and find one with similar - no identical specs. "Hey, ViL," I say "check the product number on that one we were looking at.". Yep, the same.

Our spiky-haired salesman seemed disappointed. Was it because we revealed him as less than through? Was there a bigger commission on something else? Anyway, we bought it - and hooked it up and with only minimal shouting at each other managed to connect to Internet despite the fact we'd lost our broadband software.
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

________________________________________________________________________
This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The
service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive
anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit:
http://www.star.net.uk
________________________________________________________________________